Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 8, 2021 13:13:03 GMT -8
This is also currently available for free on the Movieland.TV channel.
You all know the story. But I’m convinced that they weren’t after Helen. The Greeks being Greeks, I think they launched a thousand ships to get Jacques Sernas.
He really is a good-looking guy. Maybe too good-looking. And Helen ain’t no slouch.
This is a pretty interesting movie even if you already know the gist of the story. I did a little side research to try to find out what they know today. They know there was a Troy (several layers of them). They know there were Greeks. They know that Troy was badly damaged (if not destroyed) by an earthquake around the time of the late Bronze Age (the time of the supposed battle). They know that the geography of Troy matches closely with sources such as the Iliad. There are even some Greek artifacts (arrowheads) uncovered on the ancient shoreline that suggest there was a battle at some time.
But the overall remains sketchy concerning an actual Trojan War. And different ancient accounts have different endings. One ends with a truce (with the battle to be picked up years or months later). The most famous one ends with the Trojan Horse and the annihilation or enslavement of the population of Troy.
The overriding thought about all this is: Could the Trojans have been that stupid? Would not they have done at least a cursory examination of the horse? The Greeks (at least in this movie) had already shown themselves to be duplicitous.
However, history is full of instances of guards being bribed, in charge of a tower or a gate, to let in the enemy. That’s not as iconic of a story but, if this war did occur (ten years or otherwise), that seems more likely than the device of the horse. But then, you never know.
In this one, Helen is neither kidnapped nor elopes. They dodge that question. She is helping Paris to escape via a Phoenician boat. The guards catch up with them at night and start throwing spears, not knowing or caring that they were throwing them at the queen. Paris grabs her and they jump off the cliff into the water. I thought this was a nice touch.
The acting and actors are generally the kind of stiff caricatures you find in a low-budget Hercules movie. But fortunately it’s the plot that moves the thing, not the actors. I would say the one stand-out is Rossana Podesta as Helen. And Jacques Sernas does do well in his role as the designated beefcake airhead. Honorable mention goes to Niall MacGinnis for his portrayal of Menelaus, King of Sparta. Other than the two principals, he’s the only one that doesn’t seem to be reading off an old Hercules script. He animates his character believably within the constraints of the script.
I haven’t read the Iliad. But some have. This is a useful comment from a reviewer:
I can certainly understand formulating this as a love story between Paris and Helen. Did you expect anything else of Director Robert Wise? But as a “sword and sandal” epic, it holds up fairly well.
You all know the story. But I’m convinced that they weren’t after Helen. The Greeks being Greeks, I think they launched a thousand ships to get Jacques Sernas.
He really is a good-looking guy. Maybe too good-looking. And Helen ain’t no slouch.
This is a pretty interesting movie even if you already know the gist of the story. I did a little side research to try to find out what they know today. They know there was a Troy (several layers of them). They know there were Greeks. They know that Troy was badly damaged (if not destroyed) by an earthquake around the time of the late Bronze Age (the time of the supposed battle). They know that the geography of Troy matches closely with sources such as the Iliad. There are even some Greek artifacts (arrowheads) uncovered on the ancient shoreline that suggest there was a battle at some time.
But the overall remains sketchy concerning an actual Trojan War. And different ancient accounts have different endings. One ends with a truce (with the battle to be picked up years or months later). The most famous one ends with the Trojan Horse and the annihilation or enslavement of the population of Troy.
The overriding thought about all this is: Could the Trojans have been that stupid? Would not they have done at least a cursory examination of the horse? The Greeks (at least in this movie) had already shown themselves to be duplicitous.
However, history is full of instances of guards being bribed, in charge of a tower or a gate, to let in the enemy. That’s not as iconic of a story but, if this war did occur (ten years or otherwise), that seems more likely than the device of the horse. But then, you never know.
In this one, Helen is neither kidnapped nor elopes. They dodge that question. She is helping Paris to escape via a Phoenician boat. The guards catch up with them at night and start throwing spears, not knowing or caring that they were throwing them at the queen. Paris grabs her and they jump off the cliff into the water. I thought this was a nice touch.
The acting and actors are generally the kind of stiff caricatures you find in a low-budget Hercules movie. But fortunately it’s the plot that moves the thing, not the actors. I would say the one stand-out is Rossana Podesta as Helen. And Jacques Sernas does do well in his role as the designated beefcake airhead. Honorable mention goes to Niall MacGinnis for his portrayal of Menelaus, King of Sparta. Other than the two principals, he’s the only one that doesn’t seem to be reading off an old Hercules script. He animates his character believably within the constraints of the script.
I haven’t read the Iliad. But some have. This is a useful comment from a reviewer:
HELEN OF TROY is a very respectable Hollywood sword and sandal effort from the 1950s, with a strong international cast and very good production values. Except ...
Why does every popular culture effort at retelling the Trojan War myth have to make Paris the hero? In the Illiad, by far the most significant and authoritative source of the story, at best shows Paris to be an ambiguous figure--the best looking man of his generation, but often a coward in battle. Helen expresses extraordinary contempt for him in one extended passage. In one or two brief sequences, Paris fights valiantly, but in his major appearance, his winner-take-all-and-Helen duel with Menaleus, after bragging and crowing about his prowess, he completely wimps out in the battle, and, once defeated, is transported by Aphrodite back to Troy to hide in his bedroom.
Why does every popular culture effort at retelling the Trojan War myth have to make Paris the hero? In the Illiad, by far the most significant and authoritative source of the story, at best shows Paris to be an ambiguous figure--the best looking man of his generation, but often a coward in battle. Helen expresses extraordinary contempt for him in one extended passage. In one or two brief sequences, Paris fights valiantly, but in his major appearance, his winner-take-all-and-Helen duel with Menaleus, after bragging and crowing about his prowess, he completely wimps out in the battle, and, once defeated, is transported by Aphrodite back to Troy to hide in his bedroom.
I can certainly understand formulating this as a love story between Paris and Helen. Did you expect anything else of Director Robert Wise? But as a “sword and sandal” epic, it holds up fairly well.